We are quick to notice Paul’s mention of faith, hope, and love—the trinity of Christian virtues. But we should not overlook the terms he attaches to them: work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope. These words also matter deeply. Good results, both practical and spiritual, can only come from hard work, diligent labor, and steadfast patience. Hebrews 6:9–12 also highlights these values.
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Paul perceived two dangers that threatened to compromise his credibility as Christ’s messenger. The first was the use of “flattering words,” or telling people what they wanted to hear. The second was the use of faith as “a cloak for covetousness,” or preaching Jesus from concealed motives, especially as a way to get rich. Such deceptions are unacceptable for anyone who represents Christ.
Paul’s integrity was based on his realization that God had entrusted him with the message of Jesus (1 Thess. 2:4). Spreading the gospel to the Gentiles was not a plan of his own making but a calling from God (Gal. 1:11–17). He aimed not to please people but the Lord.
Paul chose not to worry about his material comfort, much less covet what others had. As God’s messenger, he relied on the Lord to take care of his needs. He remained content in any circumstance (see “Finding Contentment” at Phil. 4:10–13). Yet Paul was not irresponsible or lazy. He paid his own way by working as a tentmaker (see “Paul’s Tentmaking” at Acts 18:1–3).
The best way to counter modern culture’s rampant cynicism toward religion is to present a credible and straightforward message about Christ. And the best way to achieve that is to let go of our worries about material things and focus our hearts on God’s opinion and desires rather than anyone else’s.
More: For more on communicating the faith with integrity, see “A Code of Ethics for Christian Witness” at 2 Cor. 4:2.
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Paul’s calling as an apostle gave him the right to financial support. But he gave up that right in order to avoid burdening anyone and possibly causing them to reject Christ. His example supports the idea that Christian workers can carry out ministry yet support themselves by other means. See “Professional Christian Workers” at 1 Corinthians 9:1–23.
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Early Christians for the most part did not rely on paid workers in their church communities. They also didn’t establish many dedicated church buildings until the fourth century A.D. Nevertheless, they were immensely effective at carrying out Jesus’ command to be His witnesses “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Their outreach at Ephesus, for example, caused all of Asia Minor to learn about Christ (19:10). This New Testament pattern seems completely unlike the structure of most modern churches.
The Usual Model
The usual model forms a pyramid structure with a top-down chain of command. At the peak are professional clergy, or pastors, and other staff, who make up one to two percent of most congregations.
Below clergy is the paraclergy, or what we might call super-volunteers. Their untiring work within a church’s programs and structures is applauded as a measure of their Christian commitment.
Activists are church members who are energized by causes and public action. These Christians may advocate for social justice, public policy, or missions. Even if they occasionally stir up controversy and make others uncomfortable, no one doubts their passion for embodying the gospel outside the walls of the church.
The immobilized are people in life-dominating crises such as serious illness, divorce, death of a loved one, or unemployment. While some find healing by ministering to others, most of the immobilized simply need to experience care from others.
Super-volunteers, activists, and the immobilized may encompass 20 to 30 percent or more of the congregation. That leaves a majority of the church’s faithful worshipers—perhaps 70 to 80 percent—available for ministries out in the world. Church leaders often overlook these everyday people because their efforts do not serve the congregation itself. But their strategic location in the surrounding culture means that they should be affirmed, equipped, and supported to bring Christ to the world (see “Faith Impacts the World” at Mark 16:15, 16).
The New Testament Model
Descriptions of the early church include all of the groups listed in “the usual model.” But the organization and deployment of these groups looks upside-down from the perspective of the usual modern model—or right-side-up from another point of view.
In these outward-looking congregations, all of God’s people see themselves as Christ’s agents in the world. Clergy, staff, paraclergy, and activists work to equip others for ministry (Eph. 4:12). Everyday people—the majority of the church—spread throughout their communities to represent Christ.
Gathered and Scattered
Some Christians yearn to duplicate the experience of the New Testament church. Others defend modern organizational structures as a necessary means of carrying out God’s work. In reality, both diagrams help us understand how Christians function in groups. The first model demonstrates how the church gathers for internal exercises such as worship, instruction, and care for its members. In fact, the New Testament term for congregations is ekklēsia, which means “assembly.” God’s people are called out of the world and assembled, or gathered, into the church. A local church body acts as a home for safety, a hospital for restoration, a school for development, and an orchestra for worship.
This gathered life finds its complement in the scattered life. The second model shows the church reaching outside of itself to fulfill the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18–20). The church scattered acts as a spiritual force for overcoming opposition, a social agency for meeting the needs of the hurting, a prophetic voice for promoting justice, and an advertising agency for proclaiming the Good News.
Congregations must evaluate how they achieve both internal growth and external outreach. The church and God’s gospel cannot thrive if the church does not gather for cultivation and scatter for service. Because many churches today function at the extreme of the usual modern model, it may be time for us to turn them upside-down.
More: The Book of Acts shows how the early church gathered to grow its members and scattered to encounter the world. See “Connecting Sunday to Monday” at Acts 2:46, 47.
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Despite persistent efforts to present and defend the gospel in Athens, Paul met with an indifferent response from most Athenians (Acts 17:16–34). Unsurprisingly, his thoughts turned toward the Thessalonian Christians and their unusually deep connection to the gospel (1 Thess. 2:8; 2:17—3:1).
Anxious for news of his friends, Paul sent his associate Timothy north for a visit (3:2). The young man’s report buoyed Paul’s spirits. Even as the Athenians resisted Christ, the Thessalonians continued to seek God (3:6–10).
Paul’s emotional honesty should remind us to acknowledge our troubles to our friends. Paul needed the Thessalonians’ warm affection and the capable companionship of Timothy. Paul stayed connected to other Christians and counted on them for insight, encouragement, and support. He honored Christian community (Heb. 10:24, 25).
There are people all around us who feel unbearable stress and heartbreaking failure. Everyone needs encouragement, affirmation, and help staying focused on God’s big picture. Take time today to give and get refreshed.
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Bringing Faith to Work
Money was scarce in the childhood home of James Cash Penney (1875–1971). His father was a Baptist preacher who told his eight-year-old son that he would have to earn his own money for clothes and other necessities. As a teenager Penney worked at a grocery store in Hamilton, Missouri, where his bossed mixed cheap coffee with an expensive brand in order to increase his profits. Penney’s father advised him to quit the next day. It would be better to be unemployed than to be part of a crooked business.
Nothing came easy for the Penney family. When a church fired his father for suggesting that they start a Sunday school—a controversial strategy at the time—Penney developed a lifelong distrust of organized religion. When his father died of tuberculosis, no one stepped up to comfort the former pastor’s wife. Of the family’s dozen children, only half lived to adulthood.
Tuberculosis threatened Penney’s own life after he graduated from high school, and his doctor advised him to relocate to a drier climate. Penny moved to Colorado, where good things soon started happening. A man hired Penney to work for a compelling new business, the Golden Rule Store. By 1902, Penney owned his own Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a town that was home to one thousand people and twenty-one saloons. Penney sold basic necessities at a modest profit, accepting only cash payment rather than offering credit, a deliberate maneuver to keep his customers out of debt. Within ten years, Penney had opened more than thirty stores, watching over both his own interests and those of new managers by inviting them to begin as part-owners and then eventually to buy out their stores.
By 1913, competitors had stolen the successful Golden Rule brand, so Penney’s business changed its name to J. C. Penney and Company, Inc. Penney continued to focus on fair prices and good service, testing “every policy, method, and act in this wise: ‘Does it square with what is right and just’?” During the prosperous 1920s, Penney opened more than a thousand stores, a pattern that continued even through the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Yet although his company continued to grow, Penney lost most of his personal investments in the stock market crash of 1929, forcing him to borrow against his life insurance policies in order to meet the company payroll. His wife and children were angry with him, and he saw little hope for the future. Like many others who had lost their fortunes, Penney considered ending his own life. He checked into a sanitarium for help, and while he was there he heard a hymn he remembered from his childhood come ringing down the corridor: “Be not dismayed whate’er betide, God will take care of you! All you need he will provide, God will take care of you!”
Penney had no idea how to pick up and start again. “I can do nothing for myself!” he admitted. “Lord, will you take care of me?” His mind was stirred with the words “Only believe!” God helped bring Penney back to faith. Penney rebuilt his business on freshly strengthened religious principles, believing that “if we follow the admonition to love God, and our neighbors as ourselves, it will lead us to understand that, first of all, success is a matter of the spirit.” Penney persevered, and as his finances recovered, he gave millions of dollars to more than a hundred ministries nearby and around the world.
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Paul’s exhortation to “lead a quiet life” seems wildly impossible in modern life. How can we ever find calm when technology constantly accelerates change and increases complexity … when we carry the world in our hands and anyone can trace our digital footprints … when a global economy makes everybody’s business our own?
Our faith makes us able to meet the challenge of leading a quiet life. An important first step is Paul’s command to work with our own hands. Paul’s emphasis is not on “hands” but on “your own.” God does not insist on manual labor but on self-sufficiency (see “A Command to Work” at 2 Thess. 3:6–12). And Paul was not objecting to busyness but to needless distraction.
We have to admit that we allow and even invite interruptions, and few investments will help us more than developing ways to set boundaries on intrusions—without disconnecting from relationships. In fact, the down time we gain should create space for more often connecting with family and neighbors, as well as for personal reflection and for conversation with God.
The main thrust of 1 Thessalonians 4:11 is to bring peace into our lives, freeing ourselves from unnecessary disturbances and conflicts (Rom. 12:18; Heb. 12:14). Minding our own business and working hard helps us live well with people outside the faith (1 Thess. 4:12). We live peaceably by avoiding quarrels and complaints (Col. 3:13), by refusing to take offense when others strike at us (Matt. 5:7–12), by not getting entangled in others’ business (Prov. 6:1), and by humbly accepting the circumstances that God sends us for our good (Rom. 8:28; Phil. 4:11, 12).
More: John Wesley advocated spiritual disciplines that would lead to the sort of life that Paul describes in his letters. See here for an article on the life of John Wesley.
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Paul begins to wrap up his letter to the Thessalonians with four exhortations. The “unruly” need warning. Those who are losing heart need encouragement. Those who are weak need support. And everyone needs patience.
Paul’s third directive, “uphold the weak,” concerns our compassion toward the destitute. Jesus is our model for compassion (see “Christ Became Poor” at 2 Cor. 8:8, 9). He even staked His credibility on His work among the poor (see “Evidence of God” at Matt. 11:2–6). Scripture repeatedly urges us to share at least some of our material wealth with people in need. It is the only Christlike response.
Paul hardly needed to challenge the Thessalonian believers to be generous. He knew by experience that despite their deep poverty they willingly gave “beyond their ability” (2 Cor. 8:3). And if the Thessalonians could give like that, we should too.
More: For more on what Scripture says about our responsibility to the poor, see “I Have Not Coveted” at Acts 20:33–38. DeWitt Clinton saw his faith as not only relevant “to our destiny in the world to come” but also for “its influence on this world.” As a ten-term mayor of New York, he promoted causes such as public education, public sanitation, and care for the poor. See here for an article on his life.
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